


Shamrock Run

by happyaspie



Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [40]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Accommodating Peter Parker, Avengers Tower, But He Sort Of Is In A Roundabout Kind Of Way, Helicopter Mentor Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Race, Random & Short, Running, St. Patrick's Day, Tony Stark Is Not Helping, Tony Stark cares, Tony Stark is a Good Mentor, because I like the Tower
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22899325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: Peter wanted to race in the Shamrock Fun Run... for fun but Tony seems to be overly worried that he'll inadvertently out himself as Spider-man in the process.  When there is no persuading the man otherwise, Peter allows him to go over the top and coach him through the race.  After all, he just trying to help...🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [40]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1397362
Comments: 15
Kudos: 169





	Shamrock Run

It was Friday afternoon and Peter was happily bouncing into Tony's lab. "Hey, Mr, Stark! Guess What?", he called out as he crossed through the sliding doors and started towards where his mentor was working.

"What?", Tony distractedly replied. He'd been working on some intricate wiring all day and was finally getting somewhere.

"You have to guess!", Peter shot back with a laugh that caused Tony to roll his eyes. That was one of the rare moments where it was hard not to forget how much of a kid the kid actually was. 

"I don't know Pete. It could be almost anything with you", Tony teased because it really could. He'd heard people say that he talked a lot... but Peter was something else altogether. He swore the teenager could talk to a brick wall into answering him.

Peter rolled his eyes good-naturedly and crossed the room towards where his mentor was working. "You're no fun, Mr. Stark."

With a huff and a half-hearted glare, Tony finally set down the wires in favor of looking at his young mentee. "Oh, I'm fun, alright. In fact, I'm _very_ fun. Just ask Pepper.", he said with a smirk as the kid wrinkled up his nose at the invitation.

"I don't think I want to.", Peter returned with mild disgust. He wasn't absolutely sure what the man was referring to but he was fairly certain he didn't want to. He didn't dwell on that subject for too long, choosing instead to bring the conversation back around to what he'd come in wanting to talk about. " _Anyway_... I was going to say that St. Patrick's day is on Tuesday. Do you know what that means?", he asked with enthusiasm.

"Uh... that half of New York is going to be getting drunk on green beer?", Tony proposed with a quirk of his brow. That was all he could come up with, though he couldn't imagine why the kid would care about that. Other than it would probably lead to some interesting patrols later in the evening.

"I guess.", Peter agreed with a shrug of his shoulders. "...but I was talking about the Shamrock Fun Run. My school decided that they were going to let anyone that participated have the day off without any consequences and I just happened to have enough money to cover the entry fee. Everyone dresses up in all green and then--", he began to happily ramble, never noticing the look of confusion that was crossing his mentor's face.

"--Are you sure that's a good idea?", Tony eventually cut in to ask. 

"Yeah! Why wouldn't it be?", Peter replied with a wide smile. "I get to have the day off from school for free. Well, not _free, free._ It cost me three weeks of allowance but _it's for charit_ y, Mr. Stark."

For a few seconds, Tony tried to contemplate what that would look like. He'd seen the kid run with the team and knew how quickly he could pick up speed without even realizing it. At the same time, he recognized that the boy was usually really careful about preventing that from happening outside of the Spider-suit. To the point that he didn't even run the mile at school so much as he walked it, with Ned. "So, how exactly is that going to work? You're just going to... hold back? ...because I've seen you run circles around Cap in training."

Peter cocked his head to the side in consideration."I guess, I guess I hadn't really thought about that part but yeah, I'll just hold back. No problem.", he said with a casual wave of his hand.

"Can you do that? I mean I know you _can do that_ but can you do that under those circumstances? Your sure you won't get all competitive about it?", Tony asked. Running as a group always ended up being turned into something of a competition. He couldn't imagine this being any different. Especially since the Annual Shamrock Fun Run, despite its name, was an official event that would be tracking times.

For a few seconds, Peter actually considered the man's words because he _could_ get rather competitive... then he realized that the whole thing was meant to be fun. There was no way he would get that caught up in it. _'Would I?'_ , he thought to himself before shaking that out of his head in mild annoyance. "I... why are you making me worried about this! It was supposed to be fun!", he asserted as his eyebrows met his hairline.

"I wasn't trying to take the fun out of it. I just know they post all of the race results and you coming in, first place, even just in your age group is going to get your name in the paper or at minimum, posted online and god forbid, you break some sort of record...", Tony explained with a sigh.

"I'll be careful!", Peter assured. "I mean I can just... run as fast as the person beside me, right?", he asked before once again starting to question himself under his mentor's dubious gaze. "Or... they'll think that's weird right? I mean if I completely keep pace with them?", he asked because suddenly that felt like a bad idea and he didn't even know why. Surely everyone would be having too much fun to realize that someone was trying to keep their pace.

Tony sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Look, how about I give you your money back, then you don't have to feel obligated to participate and the charity still gets the cash.", he suggested already knowing the kid would never accept that.

"...but then I would have to go to school, Mr. Stark!", Peter replied with a smile because that was really what this was all about. I mean, the charity thing, yes, absolutely but getting out of school for the day was the real win, there. "It'll be _fine._ Why are you so worried about it anyway?", he asked. It wasn't like him stupidly drawing attention to himself would affect Tony. 

"Because _when_ you end up outing yourself as enhanced, I'm going to be stuck helping you clean up the mess all because you wanted a day off from school!", Tony replied with slightly more exasperation that he'd meant to but that was his real concern. No one knew who Spider-man was and he would like to keep it that way. He was sure Peter did too, the kid just wasn't thinking this through. 

"I really feel like you're overreacting, Mr. Stark.", Peter blandly assessed as he crossed his arms over his chest. 

'Yeah, well between the two of us, who's the responsible adult.", Tony asked with a matching posture.

With that question, Peter's face went from, neutral to smiling. "Is this a trick question, Mr. Stark?", he teasingly inquired.

Trying his hardest to look unaffected, Tony covered his mouth to hide the smile that was pulling at his lips. "Wow. The sass is at an all-time high today, huh, kid?"

Peter sighed and dropped down into the chair that was behind him. "Do you really want me to not run the race...?", he asked somewhat dejectedly. It was becoming very clear that the man's concerns weren't going to go away anytime soon. Which was annoying because he was actually pretty good at keeping his powers in check outside of the suit. He knew when to _not_ use them. During the rope climb, he would just barely get his feet off the ground before letting go, he never tried out for sports, he didn't even chance running down the hall even if he was going to be late... though he did occasionally jump over the back fence if no one was around... but that didn't count. 

"No... but I think I might have an idea of how to keep you from blowing your secret identity out of the water.", Tony said after some thought causing Peter to look up at him with curious amusement.

🍀-🍀-🍀-🍀

The following Tuesday, Peter was dressed in every green piece of clothing he owned and bouncing on his toes as he waited at the starting line. "Alright, kid, I've got eyes on you.", he heard Tony say through earpiece the man had given him the evening before. The plan was for him to use surveillance cameras and a small drone to track his and the other runner's progress while giving him directions in his ear. "When you hear the signal, take off in pace with the girl beside you, yeah?"

"Sure.", Petre replied before looking to around him only to realize there were no girls standing directly beside him. "Wait. Which one?"

"The one closest you, in the green tutu.", Tony replied.

Peter looked around him again and huffed. "That's a guy, Mr. Stark...", he said as he looked up to see if he could spot the drone that was set to follow him. It was pretty small and could easily be mistaken for a bird if it were high enough in the sky but the fact that it was currently hovering gave it away. No one else seemed to notice it though. They were all too focused on the race.

"Whatever... you don't run until green tutu runs.", Tony clipped back but there was no heat in his words. 

Not long after, the 'gun' sounded and rather than take off the second this spidery reflexes told him too, he waited a split second for the guy in the tutu to start running first. From there Tony coaxed him to just ' _stay in the middle of the pack_ '. It went on like that for the first few minutes as Peter took in his surroundings. Some people had really gone out of their way to dress for the occasion and it was entertaining to look at. "This is awesome, Mr. Stark!", he said as he felt that little rush of excitement that only came from enjoying something as part of a large group. It felt inclusive, exhilarating and just in general...fun...

"Yeah, yeah, awesome... now slow down a little you're pushing 10th place in your bracket.", Tony said into his ear as Peter began to inadvertently speed up in his excitement.

"I thought I was aiming for 10th place.", Peter huffed back but he slowed down a little all the same.

"You are...", Tony agreed and Peter could have sworn he heard the man start crunching on popcorn but he didn't ask. "...but you can't just stay in 10th place for the whole four miles."

"Alright, slowing down.", Peter groused before something glittered in the air in front of him, gaining his full attention. "Hey did you see that? People are throwing gold coins at the runners.", Peter said once he sorted out what it was that he'd seen. "Oh! I think they're chocolate!"

"Forget the chocolate and speed up, kid! What are you doing? You're all the way back in 16th place.", Tony groused and Peter couldn't decide if he was annoyed by that assessment or not.

"I'm having fun and isn't 16th place just as good as 10th as far as not being too flashy?", Peter asked as he began to listen to the rhythm of his feet hitting the ground to try and count out the right speed.

Slightly taken aback by the question, Tony paused for a moment to decide if the kid was right or not. Deciding that technically he probably was, he sighed. "Fine. As you were.", the man eventually replied. 

Peter didn't say anything else but he did laugh. Clearly he wasn't the only one that could unwittingly become competitive. Even when it wasn't necessary. 

After another few minutes of uninterrupted running Tony's voice once again came crackling through the earpiece. "Okay you're heading into the last half mile and you're in 8th, back off some.", Tony said and Peter instantly cut his pace in half causing his mentor to huff in his ear. "No, no, a little faster than that. 10th, kid. We're aiming for 10th.", the man hurriedly added and Peter tried really hard to try to judge what that meant. He was thankful when the next thing out of Tony's mouth was something a little more _instructional._ "Slow down and let shamrock cape person pass you."

Peter allowed the young woman with the cape to pass him, crossing the finish line just after her and was met with his results. "I did it, Mr. Stark!", he nearly shouted. "I got 10th place in my bracket."

"You did it.", Tony agreed as he leaned back in his chair. The last few seconds had been oddly stressful but at least the kid had fun. "Now go get some water.", he said with an obvious softness to his tone. The kid had done way better than he thought he would have and he decided that maybe he had overreacted _just a little_. "You did good, kid. I'm not even sure you really needed me in your ear the whole time. I think you would have done just fine."

"Thanks, Mr. Stark.", Peter said with a satisfied smile even though _h_ _e'd been sure_ he could handle it from the beginning. He hadn't let Tony do the whole, real-time coaching thing for his own benefit. He'd allowed it so that the man would relax about it but in the end, it had been kind of fun to have him talking to him the whole time. "..and I actually kind of liked having the company."

"Yeah?", Tony questioned with a laugh. "Well, if you like my company so much then why don't you finish celebrating there and then come by the tower to hang out with me in lab?"

Peter smiled at the invitation and looked at the abundance of chocolate coins placed all over water stations. "You got it, Mr. Stark.", he said as he pocketed just a couple of the candies to share with his mentor because, well, he was lucky to have him.🍀

**Author's Note:**

> Why is Helicopter Mentor Tony Stark NOT a tag? I resolve to make that a thing. 😂 Who's with me!


End file.
